<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1655726850104,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000179-379a-dbb2-a7fd-bfda8bfc0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1655726850104,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000179-379a-dbb2-a7fd-bfda8bfc0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_55726715", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1035022"} }); ","_id":"00000181-8102-ddb6-a5eb-c933b7ab0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedA Russian journalist is auctioning off one of the world’s highest honors to raise funds for Ukrainian children who have been displaced by the Russian invasion.
Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov will auction his Nobel Peace Prize medal Monday night, with all the proceeds going directly to UNICEF. Throughout the monthslong war in Ukraine, Muratov said he has become particularly concerned about children who have been orphaned, calling on the world to help.
RUSSIAN TO DONATE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE TO SUPPORT UKRAINIAN REFUGEES
“It has to become a beginning of a flash mob as an example to follow so people auction their valuable possessions to help Ukrainians,” Muratov said in a video.
International sanctions against Russia do not inhibit humanitarian aid from reaching Ukrainians in need, he added, urging people from around the world to do so.
Bidding for the medal opened on June 1 and has since reached a high bid of $550,000 as of Monday morning, with auction organizers noting they expect it to climb even higher before the day is over.
“It’s a very bespoke deal,” Joshua Benesh, chief strategy officer for Heritage Auctions, told the Associated Press. “Not everyone in the world has a Nobel Prize to auction, and [it’s] not every day of the week that there’s a Nobel Prize crossing the auction block.”
Muratov had announced in March that he would donate the $500,000 cash prize that accompanied his Nobel Peace Prize to the Ukrainian Refugee Fund.
Muratov received the Nobel Peace Price in 2021 for his work covering the Russian government despite its hostility toward a free press and its censorship tactics. The Russian journalist has long fought for independent journalism under the Kremlin’s rule, often facing life-threatening circumstances for founding the independent news outlet Novaya Gazeta.
Novaya Gazeta shut down in March amid a nationwide crackdown on journalists and public opposition to the Russian invasion. Six of the newspaper’s journalists have been killed since its founding in 1993.
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The Russian government has cracked down on news coverage of its invasion of Ukraine, passing a censorship law on March 5 that threatens imprisonment for any reporter who publishes “fake news” about the country’s military operations. This includes calling the invasion a “war” — instead, reporters must refer to it as a “special military operation.”
Russia was ranked No. 150 in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index, a decrease of one spot since 2020, according to watchdog Reporters Without Borders.
